Boaters finally can wave goodbye to Ill. River

Wayne Pritchard's itinerary for his intercontinental boating adventure might stoke envy _ 13 days near Ottawa, a long weekend docked in Havana. The only trouble is that both locales are in Illinois.

For several weeks, Pritchard and dozens of other boaters taking part in a yearlong trek snaking around eastern North America have been held hostage, of sorts, in the Land of Lincoln, unable to get off the rain-swollen Illinois River because the Coast Guard had closed off lower portions of it for safety reasons.

The Coast Guard finally opened up the final 20-mile stretch Monday, urging the bottlenecked boaters to take it slow, keeping the wakes in check.

…